Strings and Springs
by FictionGirl11
Summary: When Fazbear's Fright burns to the ground, releasing the final two trapped souls, there are two left who have yet to move on from the past. Marionette and Springtrap learn to overcome their insecurities, fears, and mistakes together to survive the upcoming calamities with some hijinks and shenanigans thrown in the mix.
1. Sparks of Change

'This place sure has changed.'

Honestly, he wasn't even sure how long had passed in that cold, damp, forsaken back room where he'd finally made his choice. He still didn't regret that choice, at least not really. He did, however, regret not making it sooner. If he had, he most likely wouldn't be being forcefully dragged from room to room in this stupid mockery of his miserable past. Maybe it was poetic how everything seemed to have come full circle, but that was him just trying to make light of his conditions.

'The first one to rise, the last one to fall.'

There was a lull in the noises that now consumed his world as he had a chance to get his bearings. Spring Bonnie was currently in one of the long hallways that ran from north to south. Seeing as the only doors were on the east side he could safely assume he was just outside of her hallway.

'Fudgesickles,' he thought angrily to himself.

With this guard's insistence upon keeping him in the end hallway (which while a very smart decision on their part, was highly irritating and obnoxious on his). It was only a matter of time before-

"Hello!" He heard from no particular place. The sound of the young boy's voice echoed throughout the long hallway until it slowly died out, leaving him in silence once again.

Welp, into hallway 7 he went.

The little paper dolls hanging on the ceiling and the presents stacked in the corner would be cheerful, were it not for the partially lit head of one of his old friends on the floor just beyond them. That was also excluding the mildewed looking walls and dim lighting. He couldn't see her, but that was no surprise. She'd likely either hid or vacated the room altogether when she heard the sound cue.

It'd only been a few days since he'd been found and stuck in this place, but Afton was taking full advantage of the fact there was a guard to do… whatever he thought they were doing; he had no clue. Spring wasn't entirely sure, but he was probably too crazy to make real sense of it. It had been a while, but he was gaining power again since Spring had been moving around; lest we forget his sudden murderous motivation.

Speak of the devil and he shall come. Spring began to the pressure of Afton's influence in the back of his mind. Seeing as how they were so far from the guard still, Spring chose to save his energy for if they got closer. Receding back to his sort of 'safe spot' within his programming, he sat back to watch as the static got louder and louder.

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* * *

She had prepared everything. She'd gotten the balloons, the cake, the cupcakes, and gave her deepest apologies to everyone who deserved them. All that was left was to figure out what to do with this indigo-colored, malformed amalgamation that was representative of all the souls they'd wrongfully killed and lives they'd broken. Such fun. She'd been in the suffocating darkness of the soulscape for who knows how long just trying to get this last piece of the puzzle before she could finally set everything right. It was endlessly frustrating.

Marionette looked around the 2-Dimensional room for clues as to what on earth she was supposed to have the bunny do and noticed that the bunny was looking down, not like Goldie who was looking down at the children but straight through the floor of the stage. She willed him down, and after a few glitchy seconds, he plummeted into the very first "mini-game" she'd completed.

'Now what?'

Looking around again, she noticed Balloon Boy's eyes were pointed to the left of the box, so left she went. She fell into a dark abyss for a short while until she saw a child, just sitting there crying. From what she could remember, this was Jonathan, the child who had possessed Bonnie. Despite the bunny's somewhat disturbing appearance, the giving of cake brightened his mood, and Marionette found herself pulled back into the physical realm, back in room 8. She could feel the child's presence again, but Charlie was strangely quiet. A gentle nudge prompted Marionette to get to the final piece of her convoluted plan to free the souls of the children.

Gliding quickly through the attraction, and no doubt startling the guard if he happened to see her, she came across an old picture of herself giving a cake to a small child. Steeling herself, she reached out. Her black, slender fingers brushed gently against the withered and torn paper as the 6 AM chime rang.

* * *

Spring shuddered as the 6 AM bells sounded out and he regained full control over his body. The witching hours where Afton could control him had ended. Having seen Marionette streak through room five like a bullet only a minute ago, he decided to go see what she was up to, not that she'd stick around when she noticed him coming. And she would notice him coming. In his decaying and dilapidated state, he wasn't exactly stealthy. Even if he were, there wasn't much that escaped Mari's notice, especially after '75.

It was admittedly lonely in the soon to be abandoned attraction. It was far too quiet and reminded him far too much of that lonely back room in the restaurant, with the faint sounds of life that managed to drift through the ventilation system...

...until they abruptly stopped one day..

He missed performing and being around people. Mostly though, he missed his friends. He hadn't seen Goldie since they were retired, and Spring was sealed in that horrible room, and Mari...well, they weren't friends anymore. He had screwed that relationship up a long time ago. He missed messing with Goldie with her and all the japes they'd pulled on the staff when things were better and no one was dead. He really should've listened to her all those years ago, he could've avoided this whole mess.

Entering the room she had fled into, he saw no sign of her.

'Maybe she'd gone to the guard room?'

Turning around he headed, off to the office. He looked through the glass, and still saw no sign of the puppet.

'Hmm. Where would she have gone in such a rush?'

The guard was gone, which was normal for this time, what was unusual was the extra haze in the air. Did they decide to install a smoke machine? But wasn't smoke from smoke machines white?

Then it hit him.

This was no fake smoke, this was fire. Just as the realization hit him, he saw the orange flames begin to lick up from beneath the desk.

'OH SUGAR-HONEY-ICE-TEA!'

Rushing into the office, he saw that the bobbleheads that were usually on the desk, as well as the guard uniform, had been used for kindling. Spring could only watch in horror as the ventilation alarm went off and his servos froze up from the noise emanating from just above his head. The red lights began blaring, sending him into further despair.

Spring hated the color red.

Red meant blood, like the blood from Afton's crimes, cruelly ending the lives of too many children too early. Blood like the from the night guards, many of which shouldn't have died in the first place. But right now, red meant fire. Fire like the inferno that was about to consume him.

The fire lit the thin paper covering the desk, which quickly erupted. Mustering up every ounce of strength he had, Spring slowly limped his way out of the office. Just as the fire made its way to the trashcan, the inferno tripped the building's fire alarm, freeing him from being drawn to one specific source. The idiots that built the place hadn't thrown in a sprinkler system, nor did they put in any fire extinguishers. Humans sure were dumb sometimes. Just then, it hit him that there was still an unaccounted being somewhere in the building.

"Marionette! Mari! Where a-a-are yo-" His voice box shorted out before he could finish his warning.

Mari was smart, surely she'd know what the fire alarm meant and would… what? What could they do? Leave? He knew Mari could go wherever she pleased but he'd tried before, they'd hooked him up to some invisible red barrier so that he couldn't wander out, which meant he was essentially stuck.

'Think, think, think, where was the least flammable place in this building… the metal vents!'

Turning around, he made his way into the vent that went from cam 7 to the room just outside the office. Wedging himself halfway between the two rooms, he stayed there and waited. Within minutes he could hear the crackling of the flames, and the metal vents around him began to heat up.

'Come on Spring,' he frantically thought to himself. 'think of it as a warm indoor heater on a cold winter night.'

Thick black smoke began to pour in and fill the air in the cramped vent. Spring began to crawl towards the opening.

'No! I... won't... die... here...!'

The last thing he remembered before his systems shut down from overheating was the faint sound of Afton yelling something.

* * *

The children's souls were free!

At last, Marionette had given them their happiest day. After all the mistakes and pain they'd been forced through while being tied to this mortal coil through her own misinformed attempts to help them, they were finally free to move on; no strings attached.

Smiling to herself as she emerged from the dreamlike state she was in, a tired Marionette was confronted by a scene that was the exact opposite of happy, or even positive period. Her beloved, well, not despised, hallway was in flames. The cute paper people holding hands were burning, and Marionette could barely see through the black smoke that was swirling with ash and embers.

Quickly looking around, Marionette knew her only available exit was into the room with cameras 9 and 10, which looked promising as there was an exit just through the room. Picking her way carefully, yet swiftly over the flaming debris, she made it to the doorway before there was a horrific cracking noise from above her. She refused to look up and simply tried to move even quicker through the fiery wreckage. She was only a few feet away from freedom when the roof collapsed, burying her slim black and white form beneath it.

'Spring... I know you're in there somewhere...'

It was unbearably hot, and she was pretty sure her internal music box was now damaged, given the pain she felt in her chest. She had no idea how her endoskeleton was fairing, so she simply curled into the smallest ball she could manage with the heavy ceiling pinning her to the ground. She cursed her small stature and flimsier build, any other full-sized animatronic would have few problems dragging themselves out. All she could do was close her eyes and wait as the fire ran its course, and hope that she didn't go with it.

'I'm sorry.'


	2. Rising from the Ashes

WARNING: CPU Temperature Threshold Exceeded!]

[Attempting safe boot...]

As Spring's processor slowly came back online, the first thing he noticed was that he was uncomfortably warm. That was a first. Usually, he was pretty cold being made of metal and all. That is, aside from his chest and after he'd been moving and active for a while. After his blurry vision had mostly cleared, it hit him why he was so warm.

_'The fire,'_ He thought with a shudder.

Scanning around to survey the damage, he discovered that his hiding spot within the vent was still mostly intact, although sagging a bit and looking for the most part melted. Bringing his hands in front of his face he could see that his fur was only a tad singed in the thinner places. The rust and holes were normal (at least for what he'd been through), if a bit worse than the last time he'd checked. No surprise there.

_'I hope the rest of me ended up this intact.'_

Deciding that he'd be able to better determine the total damage done was by getting out of the vent, he began dragging himself to the exit. Little bits of ash were still swirling around in the air, so it probably hadn't been that long since he shut down. The only reason his processor was working now was that his body had cooled down just enough to work again. He couldn't risk overheating again, as he might not come back a second so soon. Spring wearily dragged himself out of the vent and into room 8, which was significantly cooler than the metal vent.

Maybe it was because the wood and drywall conducted less heat, or maybe it was the large, gaping hole in the ceiling. Deciding that the room wasn't about to collapse on him, he did a quick check of himself. Everything seemed to be only slightly singed but otherwise seemed alright. In fact, crawling through the vent had seemed easier than usual and in fact, he felt significantly lighter than normal. Looking closer at himself, he soon realized why.

_'Afton's corpse is gone!'_

Holding perfectly still for a moment to relish in the feeling of his endoskeleton being uninhibited at last, he also realized that he could no longer feel the vengeful ghost hanging around anymore. Not even in the back of his mind could he feel the man's angry presence.

_'I'm free...'_

His growing elation was suddenly interrupted by the sound of distant sirens and pops of the embers around him.

_'Oh yeah, humans don't like fire either. I should probably leave unless I want to get sent to a scrapyard... or worse.'_

Luckily enough, the exit was just down the hallway. Picking his way through the rubble, he was making steady progress towards the door when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Stripes, specifically a black and white striped appendage.

"Marionette...?" He called out.

No response.

Quickly scrambling over to her, he discovered that only the back end of the puppet had been spared from being crushed. Fear and panic swept over him.

_'Was she alright? Was she alive?!'_

Bracing himself on the floor, he heaved up the section of roof that had fallen on Marionette and supported it on one shoulder. While the large chunk of the building's roof was supported on his broad shoulder, he grabbed the end of her closest leg and managed to drag her out from under it. Spring stepped out from beneath the slab and let it slam back down to the floor with a loud THUMP. Marionette didn't so much as twitch. To his surprise and relief, her mask was in one piece. Smudged and faded, but otherwise intact. That was a good sign but didn't indicate that she was alright internally, which was what really mattered.

Beginning to panic a bit, he used the only method he knew how to figure out if she were alive or not. He knelt down and placed his hand over her chest. Warmth. Not as much as there should be, but it was there nonetheless. Her soul had not left her body. Relaxing a little, Spring soon realized that the sirens had gotten significantly louder than before. He needed to leave, but where could he go?

As he pondered this, a charred and still burning piece of paper floated by and stuck to the wall. "ROBOTS SCRAPPED!" the headline boldly proclaimed, "After only being open a few short weeks, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria on 3387 Ruby Road is closing its doors." 3387 Ruby Road... He was pretty sure he knew where that was, as he'd seen it in Afton's memories once or twice. He didn't like those memories, nor his own from the time, but at least they were serving a purpose.

Spring picked up Marionette and carried her bridal style towards the exit. As he pushed open the door, however, a large blue grid materialized in front of him.

"Oh great," He muttered with a roll of his eyes. As Spring neared the grid, it gradually shifted to red, and then eventually filled into a translucent red wall, surrounding the premises as it towered over him. Looking around, he could quickly make out the words DON'T MOVE appearing on the wall in random places. Spring ignored these warnings as he set down Marionette, and moved right up to the wall.

As if he stepped out of his own body, a completely invisible Spring placed both hands on the wall and leaned into it. To any passerby, it would seem as if he were just standing there, staring at absolutely nothing. To the dilapidated animatronic, however, he could feel the red barrier pushing back against him, trying to stop him from disobeying his instructions with its electrifying touch. But, unlike the last time he'd tried to leave, the circuits had been damaged and the barrier was weakened.

Despite his circumstances, Spring soldiered on, pressing against the digital barrier with all his mental strength. He pressed harder and harder, using the tiny fractures and imperfections in the code that had developed as a starting point. He continued to push against it until the red wall finally gave way and shattered like glass. Suddenly, Spring found himself back in his own body, standing with his hands in front of him, breathing heavily and feeling fatigued. Normally, he would've taken the time to get his bearings and look at the scenery around him, but there was no time to waste. He picked the still unconscious Marionette back up and left as quickly as possible.

Dashing behind a nearby building, he peeked around the corner to see a bright red truck with flashing lights pull into the parking lot. People in reflective yellow and tan suits began jumping out of it. Looking down at his offline companion, he steeled his nerves, and set off into the distance, shielding his eyes from the rising sun.

After a lot of sneaking around and too many close calls with people seeing him, Spring finally made it to Ruby Road. The street looked completely abandoned and desolate, almost like a ghost town. About a block down the road, he found the place he was looking for. A rundown and definitely abandoned "New and Improved" Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria stood, towering over him. Spring gripped the metal handle and opened the partially broken glass doors, cringing from the painfully loud and high pitched squeaking the rusty hinges produced. When he looked inside, things weren't pretty.

To his right was a rotten and decaying hardwood stage where the toy incarnations had performed. It looked very cheaply made like it couldn't even hold Marionette's weight, much less that of three much heavier animatronics. There were still set party tables with the tablecloths atop them, swaying in the slight breeze like they were the ghost costumes of kids on Halloween. Beyond that was a games corner with a few neglected-looking arcade cabinets, and then a hallway leading further into the building.

Looking to his left, Spring gazed upon what was probably his best stroke of luck in at least 30 years. Marionette's signature box was sitting in the corner, next to some black shelves lined with stuffed animals caked in dust. At first, this confused him, until he recalled that she'd been reintroduced in this building as a prize giver. Frankly, this suited her better from what he remembered of her personality before he got locked up. He only knew this from Afton's ramblings, Spring had never actually so much as set foot in this building before. Walking over, he opened the box to find pitch black darkness inside, something else he'd forgotten was a thing. Setting her gently down inside the box and folding the flaps over the top, he explored around a bit more.

There was another door just to his right, and when he peeked through there was another table with an unfinished puzzle sitting on it. Some blocks were strewn haphazardly across the floor, as if a small child had set them up, and knocked them all down in destructive fun. A short raised section mimicked a stage where Spring could only assume a different animatronic than the main three had performed. This was similar to Foxy's set up in the first pizzeria, so it makes sense that the management would use something similar.

Turning around and wandering over to the hallway near the game cabinets, he quietly strolled down the hall. He noted that there were two bathrooms, a utility closet, and a kitchen. A door labeled 'Parts and Services' also presented itself at the end of the hall. Resolutely ignoring the door, he turned left down a much more spacious hallway with four doors, two on either side and at the end what looked to be an office. Spring had ever seen an office that spacious or exposed. Bypassing the party room doors, he entered the room at the end of the hall.

Definitely a security office, he could see the tablet lying face down on the desk. Spring picked it up and tried to turn it on, but the battery was dead. Looking through the drawers, he found a sturdy flashlight and a few sticky notes with what looked like shopping lists on them. That is, if shopping lists included tasers and flamethrowers. Other than that, the only thing of real note were the two massive vents on either side of the room, bigger than the ones at Fazbear's Fright, as one of the newspapers the guard had brought in called it.

Heading back down the hallway, he peeked into the four doors lining the large hallway, finding the exits, or perhaps entrances, to the vents in the security room in the first two. Considering the rooms for a moment, he made a decision. Walking quickly to the main room, Spring opened up the present box to find Marionette was still asleep. Picking up the entire box he set it within one of the rooms closest to the office and wedged it between a table and the wall the vent was on. He then decided to see if he couldn't get the generator working while he waited for Mari to wake up, provided he could find it.

'It can't be that difficult.'

* * *

As it turns out, it was that difficult. Finding it wasn't all that hard, all he had to do was break the lock on the utility room as it stared him in the face. It was then that he realized he had no idea how to actually make one of these things work. Though he knew he at least had a very small one built into his endoskeleton. Actually, he was fairly certain that he wasn't even running off it now. More likely, his soul was the thing fueling him at this point.

Pulling his thoughts back on track, Spring stepped into the room and looked over the breaker box and generator. They were both heavily rusted and looked about as dead as machines could get. He sighed and got to work figuring out how to if not fix the things, then at least get them working. Two hours and a number of food-related swears later, Spring had finally done it. After flicking a switch in the breaker box, the lights flickered on in the room. He'd actually managed to fix something! Flicking on the lights to the hallway, office and the party room that he'd placed Marionette's box, he began laughing gleefully. Those two hours of frustration were definitely worth it! "Stupid generator, stupid humans not properly taking care of things. You can't defeat me this time!" He said triumphantly, making his way through the now dimly lit hallway to make sure everything was working as it should

Entering the party room, he noticed with pride that the lights here were also on. Smiling to himself he ambled over to where Mari's box was and lifted the flaps only to be greeted with emptiness. She was awake and apparently feeling well enough to move around. Excellent! He was glad she was okay, but then...

'What if she leaves before I can explain?'

He felt a sinking feeling rest itself upon his shoulders. Feeling desperate to find her before that happened he tried calling.

"Marionette? Where did you go?"

He checked under the table and glanced into the vent. No sign of her. He went back out the door and entered the room opposite the one he'd left to check there. He'd just stepped a few feet in when he heard a thud from the hallway. Turning his head, he saw her back away from the wall as they made eye contact.

"Mari-" He started before she was off again, clearly going for the doors he'd locked with some severed wires he found in the utility room. Hopefully, it'd buy him some time as he barreled down the hallways as fast as his rusted and atrophied joints would allow him. She was climbing out the glass door and was most of the way out when he caught her by the leg. Giving her a pained expression, he told her what he'd hoped at the very least would keep her from running off.

"Please don't go. I can explain everything."


	3. Glass Truce

Marionette was not happy. Everything hurt and she was compacted in a very strange way within her box. Huffing a bit she adjusted her position within the tight confines she so adored. Much better than that lousy open hallway where Springtrap could come shuffling through at any moment. Come to think of it, that hallway was destroyed and she hadn't seen her box in years. Where was she?

Shifting again and fighting to stay calm, she rose out of the lightly closed box just enough for her glowing eyes to peek out. She was in the toy incarnation of the Pizzaria! One of the party rooms by the security office if she had guess based on the massive open vent just beyond her box. How did her box get here? More importantly, how did _she _get here? Last Marionnette remembered she got stuck under the ceiling in that horrible haunted house. Clearly she wasn't dead, unless her afterlife was being stuck in a falling apart Pizzeria that she'd previously lived in. She hoped that wasn't the case.

Overhead the lights flickered a bit before staying on, casting the room in a cheerful pale yellow. Faint maniacal laughter could be heard from down the hallway. She wasn't alone and with a tightening feeling in her strings, she heard the familiar voice continue, "Stupid generator, stupid humans not properly taking care of things. You can't defeat me this time!" As Springtrap ranted his voice got closer and closer. Panicking, Marionette ducked back down in her box but quickly realized that playing asleep wasn't going to work with how wound up she was. Making a split-second decision she dove out of her box and into the vent as quietly as possible, going to the corner and waited to see if he came in the room. He did. Extinguishing her lights she watched as he went over to the box and carefully opened the flaps, no doubt thinking she was still asleep. No way was she about to be around when he found her missing. Slipping quickly through the vent to the security room she entered the next one as she heard her name called.

"Marionette! Where did you go?" Funny, he almost sounded scared and, dare she say it, desperate? Sucks for him, Marionette was NOT about to fall for that schtick again. Last time she did, well… the floor of the parts and service in the building before this one still had the red stain last she knew.

Picking up the tablet and discovering it dead she simply hooked up the camera system remotely and saw Spring exiting the room she'd been in. Perfect. Closing the program Marionette silently slid back into the vent she'd come from. Peeking out the door, Springtrap was looking around the room opposite her, his back turned. This was her chance. She turned the corner and went down the hallway like a shot. Ignoring her still damaged body's protests was evidently a bad idea as she overestimated her ability to make the corner and slammed against the far wall with her shoulder, eliciting a soft hiss of pain. Not soft enough as that infernal rabbit poked his head out the door almost immediately after. "Mari-" She was already making a beeline for the door. Hearing the rabbit's heavy footfalls rapidly approaching her she tried to open the door only to find that a heavy chain had been wrapped around the handles. Plan B then. One of the glass doors had most of the glass missing on the upper part and she began to stuff herself through it as quickly as possible, one of the only perks of being a smaller animatronic besides speed and agility. She almost made it but it seemed she wasn't allowed to leave any building without getting held back. He had grabbed her leg and she was now awkwardly mostly out the window with only what would be about a human foot left of it left within the pizzeria. Twisting she went to, what? Slap him? Like that'd do any good. Instead, she looked over her shoulder but before she could say a word,

"Please don't go!" There was the manipulation again.

"Why shouldn't I?" She hissed. He flinched but did not relinquish his grip.

"I-I don't want to be alone." Ha.

"Maybe you should've thought of that before you started _killing everyone around you!" _Marionette was starting to get mad. "Perhaps, if you'd actually had any sort of mental spine you could've avoided all of this but NO! Now everyone is gone, there's nowhere left to go and nothing making me stay here anymore! Let go!" Still, the rabbit kept a firm hold. She prepared to continue before he cut her off.

"I know, and I also know that there is nothing I can do to make it up to you right now. But I want to try! I screwed up, really bad and those innocent kids lost their lives because of it and when I tried to make it right I only trapped him here with them so they still couldn't move on. I know I didn't try hard enough then but, I'd really like to try again now. I've permanently screwed up so many things that can't be fixed no matter what anymore and I don't want our friendship to be one of them. I don't want to be on my own anymore, I-I miss you Mari." It was then he finally broke eye contact with her and paused, seeming to collect himself. Gaze on the floor, Springtrap continued, "If-if you really hate me that much now, I don't blame you. I'm not going to force you to stay. Heck, you'd probably be just fine on your own, you're smart enough to survive even being what we are. All I'm going to do is ask, no, beg you to stay because well, despite everything both of us have done and been through, I still want to be your friend." Still not looking at her he relinquished his hold. For a moment, Marionette was too stunned to do anything for a moment before slowly bringing the rest of her body out the window. Now was the time, did she stay or did she leave?

Feeling very exposed and out in the open of the, mercifully, still empty street her feeling warred with each other. On the one hand, he'd betrayed everyone before and had claimed innocence which was absurd because he still could've done _something _at least the second time but he'd metaphorically stood back and just watched the murder happen. Which was just as bad as doing it himself in her eyes. He already had a record. On the other hand though, he'd admitted he was wrong, apologize even! Assuming he wasn't acting, and Marionette didn't think he was, he was genuinely remorseful for his previous actions, or rather, inactions. Making up her mind, she gathered her energy and teleported.

* * *

Feeling the familiar quiver of the air that happened when Marionette jumped, he looked up again. She was gone. He was alone. Again. Spring supposed that he deserved it. Frankly, he wasn't all that surprised but it still hurt. The overwhelming urge to destroy something was so tempting, anything to ignore the sudden hole in his chest, but he suppressed it. "_It was giving in to those sort of things that made Mari leave in the first place,"_ He scolded himself. He needed to distract himself. He already got the generator working, what else could he do? Normally, his nights were spent hunting the guard or pointedly ignoring Afton. The guard. Perhaps Spring could get the tablet working? Why not.

Wandering down the hall he still couldn't bring himself to look in the parts and service room. He had already been stuck in the back room of the restaurant by the time this particular rendition opened but, the room still brought up bad memories. Turning the corner into the party rooms, Spring heard a strange rustling. It didn't sound like mice. Spring knew all too well what mice sounded like. It was coming from the room with Mari's box. Hope sprang up in his chest, he felt his springs tighten in anticipation. If it was some human who'd slipped in the back he'd ki- err, politely escort them to the door. Shaking the unwanted thought from his head, he stilled himself and peeked around the doorframe.

Nothing seemed amiss at first glance. The tables were undisturbed and Mari's box was in its place. A lone mouse skittered across the floor. Disappointment and rage began to flare when the present box _shifted. _Pausing, Spring waited. It shifted again! Narrowing his eyes, he took a step into the room to investigate. Instantly, static rang out, surprising him into retracting his step and falling back. Unable to recalibrate his balance in time, Spring fell to the floor. A soft chime sounded, a bit off-key. There was no way, yet… Lifting his head from the floor, there were two glowing dots shining from the depths of the present box. Seeing his gaze, another short warning hiss of static was emitted before the box closed and the eyes disappeared.

Spring laid there for another minute, unable to comprehend what he'd just witnessed. She had left, but she was here! Mari had stayed! Pulling himself up he gazed at the box, it was still unmoving. Smiling, more than just his usual decayed grin, a real smile, Spring continued to the guard room feeling like the luckiest bot in the world. It was going to take some time and effort to get her to warm up to him he knew. He'd just have to show her he was going to change and stay that way. He could do good! And he'd start with that dead tablet.

* * *

Sitting in her wonderful box once again, Marionette settled in to get some much-needed rest after that expense of energy. Admittedly, she hadn't really expected him to not destroy anything and control himself. It seemed she'd made the right call in deciphering his intentions. She was glad, she didn't want to be alone either.


	4. Storytime

The following week had been fairly uneventful. Marionette had moved her box back to the prize corner after the first day, and seemed a bit more at ease with it being back in its proper spot. Spring made sure to give her some space after the time he'd surprised her one morning by saying hello. Unfortunately, all he got was a surprise punch for his trouble. Not strong enough to do any real physical damage, but it was a good reminder that while she wasn't as physically strong as a normal-sized animatronic, she was still a force to be reckoned with. Also, that he wasn't allowed too close. He tried to be in the large main room as much as possible. She didn't seem to mind him being in the same room until he got a little too close to the prize corner, in which case she'd give him a warning hiss or would simply glare at him until he backed away.

Marionette was always a fairly quiet being, and valued her space from what he remembered, so he didn't take offense to her not really talking to him all that much. Her hostility seemed only half-hearted anyway after a few days, as though she was doing it on principle. She may not have forgiven him yet, but Spring could tell she was to come around eventually. He would just have to try a bit harder to earn her full-on trust, which was exactly what he'd planned to do today.

He'd done some digging through the boxes in the office and found… a music box! It wasn't the one that was used to lull her to sleep, (thank goodness, because that could've turned into a massive misunderstanding) but rather it was labeled "Tangled Up" by Caro Emerald according to the fading sticker on the bottom. He had no idea what that was, but it was a music box, and Mari loved music boxes.

_'Just like how she loved me...'_

Spring shook that thought out of his head. Now was not the time to mope around, he'd been lucky just to get her to stay at all. It'd been a challenge to hide his discovery, as he'd seen Mari occasionally watching him out of the corner of his eye for almost the past week. She was sneaky about it though, being mostly black allowed her to easily blend in with the shadows. He also wasn't totally sure he'd seen her every time, or if it was just a few times, and the admittedly stupid checkerboard pattern on the walls the other times.

It was kind of funny, actually. Spring vaguely remembered that there were a few times in the diner playing hide and seek where they didn't find her until the next morning when she popped out of her box to do her job. She never told them where she'd hid, though he had a theory that she'd hide in the ceiling with the insulation after finding some pieces of it on the floor once.

Spring had noticed those little memories that he hadn't even realized he'd forgotten until they started springing up. (Heh, springing up.)

_'I'll have to remember that one.'_

It made him wonder what else he'd forgotten, and hoped it wasn't anything important. It also reminded him that there was at least a 40-year gap where the world had gone on without him while he was locked in the backroom. What was he missing from there? He already knew that at least one extra batch of animatronics had come through, as their faces were on the fading, tattered posters scattered throughout this establishment. Based on the torn up newspaper clippings, he knew that it was the next building after the establishment he knew, and the sounds he could hear before Fazbear's Fright went up in flames told him that they had already passed on.

_'Just like the others.'_

A cold chill ran up his metal spine, and Spring had finally figured out why that kept happening. Marionette was nearby. He pretended he hadn't noticed her and continued going through the box before he found some blue papers and looked through them.

_'Fresh fliers!'_

He pulled out the glossy pieces of paper to look at them. There were 6 animatronics on it, including Mari. A brown bear, a blue rabbit, a yellow chicken, and white fox, a small somewhat unsettling looking child with a balloon, and Marionette about halfway out of her box; all with rosy cheeks and somewhat plastic-y looking facial structures. The title "Grand Reopening!" was above them with information in smaller text below.

"The Toy Generation." Came a voice from behind him.

Spring tried not to jump at the sudden voice, and barely kept himself from whipping around to face Marionette who had decided to join him. "That was when the management reintroduced me in, and swapped the original four for the toy models. They were all good beings while they were around, I miss them sometimes." She said in a sad yet thoughtful tone. Spring risked a peek at her over his shoulder. Marionette's head was tilted in a contemplative manner as she looked at the flier.

"Hmm, they look a lot more cartoon-y than the rest of us." Spring observed cautiously, not wanting to accidentally insult her.

"Hm, they do." Marionette agreed with a hint of amusement in her voice, "It was fun to tease them. Toy Bonnie in particular as on top of the name, they'd decided to give him female eyelashes but a male voice and identity. It was hilarious to hear him complain after hours about how many kids called him a girl." Marionette reminisced.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to them?" Spring asked even more cautiously, "I.. I understand if you don't want to talk about it." He wasn't ruining this chance at conversation within the first minute of it starting.

"No, it's alright. I've had my time to grieve. Due to your… incident," Spring flinched slightly but she continued on, "but I'll give you the run-down. After some... events... it was decided that the original crew would go into storage, while the Toy generation were outfitted with facial recognition and connected to a police database. Apparently it was a last-minute attempt to make the children at the pizzeria safer. I just think it's kind of funny that they decided to give me a gift-giving job, instead of staying with the guard position. Not that I complained, though, giving gifts was much more fun than just watching, but I never stopped watching."

"I noticed," Spring said dryly. She looked at him and responded with an equally dry tone, "It's not as though I don't have every reason to. The last time I took my eyes off you, things didn't end up well for anyone. Better safe than sorry." She had a point.

"Touché."

"Moving on, the new tech was still experimental and there were some… bugs. They didn't really do anything except make their memory for connecting the names and faces of children absolutely abysmal, so it wasn't really a huge problem to the management. Then, this one night guard came; Vincent was what he called himself," She said with the most disdain Spring had heard her refer to anyone with beside himself, "He may have had a new name and a slightly different face, but I wasn't fooled, and neither were the others. Afton was back."

_'Well, that explained the venom.'_

"He began to do the shifts and would taunt us the entire time. The toys picked up on our aggression towards him and began to go after him as well. But, he survived the week and got transferred to the day shift. Also at the end of that week, a new technician for us was hired. Some moron named Fritz Smith who didn't know what he was doing absolutely destroyed what remained of their facial recognition abilities. Not just the Toys, but the original four, too. Toy foxy ended up getting the worst of it. For reasons unfathomable to me, the children had torn her apart, and management was tired of putting her back together so they left her as a mangled version of herself. That was already hard enough on her hard drive, not to mention her mental stability, but his tampering was the final straw. She couldn't tell who was good or bad, and she was always one to leap before she looked, anyway.

She confused the poor day guard with Vincent and well… Jeremy is left-handed now, To say the least. Eventually, the Toys were deemed unsafe and were sent to be scrapped. I left to finish what I'd started, and soon enough they opened the building previous backup and put the original four back on stage. Unfortunately, it was only open for about two years before the stigma from before finally forced it to close its doors or risk bankruptcy. 28 years later, the horror attraction was opened." Marionette trailed off, and Spring absorbed what he'd learned. Soon enough, he realized something.

"We're really old."

Marionette looked at him oddly.

"Of all the things you could take from my monologue, you got that?" She asked incredulously. She scoffed and got up from her kneeling position and turned to leave.

"The fliers weren't the only thing I found in the boxes," Spring said quietly.

She stopped and looked over her shoulder. He could imagine her raising an eyebrow like he'd seen some parents do when their kids asked for something wilder than normal. He pulled out the music box from where he'd hidden it behind one of the boxes. Her eyes seemed to glow brighter for a second as she tensed up. Noticing this, Spring hurriedly continued before she flipped, "It's called Tangled Up, I thought you'd like it." He held it out. Relaxing somewhat, Marionette slowly came over to inspect the box, gingerly taking it from his hand. She wound the crank a bit and the music emerged, upbeat and jaunty in pace and key. Mari's expression seemed to soften slightly.

"...Thanks."

Marionette left once again, off to do whatever she did when she wasn't watching him or tidying up the aged prize corner.

* * *

Before Spring had even opened his eyes, he knew where he was...and who he was with. He took in the rotting, molding smell of the room and his own disgusting scent of decay. He hoped that if he didn't open his eyes that the other occupant wouldn't notice he had come online. A futile hope, but all he could really do was hope.

"Heeeyyyyy Sppriinggyyy~ Come on best buddy, time to pllaayyy~" Spring didn't want to, he refused. He didn't move past focusing his gaze on a spider that was spinning its web in the opposite corner of the room, trying his best to ignore the growing itch to destroy that which wasn't his own. Afton got angry then, he didn't like being ignored, and got right up in Spring's face.

"Come on rabbit, you know you want to. After all, you didn't even try to stop me the first few times, I'd have thought you enjoyed it!" Spring knew better than to indulge the ghost, he'd heard it before. It still hurt. Likely because it was partially true. He hadn't tried to stop it. He stayed silent, doing nothing, as usual. The other being kept up the dialogue but Spring just tuned him out, jaw clenched, gaze never breaking from the spider in the corner. Most of the time, Afton would get bored and go back to doing whatever it was he did to entertain himself aside from trying to provoke Spring. Unfortunately, this wasn't going to be most times. A searing pain went through his head, causing the rabbit to flinch.

A fatal mistake.

"I know you can hear me!" Spring could now feel him too, dragging him down into memories that were both his own and not. Spring tried desperately to block out the images, but some still snuck past. The glint of sharp metal, a tear-streaked face futilely calling for help that would not arrive, bloodstained golden paws, and a mauve uniform splattered with red. The pain was all over, springs digging and slicing into everything. No escape, just panic, despair, and-

Blank.

Pitch black.

There was no temperature, no scent, no feeling.

Just void.

He felt himself being pulled upwards.

There were children! The room was flooded with a cheerful yellow light, and the counter next to him had candies and small toys within. A child approached him and he turned his attention to them. Shyly, they held out a cup stuffed full of tickets to him. A striped arm gently reached out to take them. The child pointed to something behind Spring, and he turned to see shelves with rows of plushies proudly displayed upon it. The small finger was angled towards a yellow bird with a white bib. A Toy Chica plush. How Spring knew this, he didn't know. He also didn't know how it was determined that the child was just a few tickets shy of being able to get it. Oh well, machines made mistakes sometimes. Marionette's hand reached out and grabbed the toy before giving it to the child with a soft chime of happiness. Seeing as no more children were currently vying for his attention, he descended back into darkness.

Once again, it was blank.

Pitch black.

The free-falling sensation continued until Spring awoke abruptly with a lingering sense of fulfillment. He got up from the security desk, (where he'd been fiddling with the monitor again before his battery ran low and he entered recharge mode) and made his way to the main stage room. He'd never awoken from one of his encounters with Afton feeling anything but disgust and an urge to destroy something. Making his way over to the far corner he stopped just outside the familiar counter.

"Thank you." He said quietly, just above a whisper. The box did not move, yet Spring knew its occupant had heard him. Turning again, he went back into the hallway to avoid the sunlight, and more importantly the gaze of a passerby.

Sitting back down in the office chair, Spring got back to work.


End file.
